Bernd Franke

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For the German composer, see Bernd Franke (composer).

Bernd Franke
Personal information
Date of birth (1948-02-12) 12 February 1948 (age 76)
Place of birth Bliesen, Saar Protectorate
Height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Youth career
0000–1966 SV Bliesen
1966–1967 SV Urexweiler
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1967–1969
Saar 05 Saarbrücken
 35 (0)
1969–1971 Fortuna Düsseldorf 29 (0)
1971–1985 Eintracht Braunschweig 387 (0)
Total 451 (0)
International career
1972–1977 West Germany B 6 (0)
1973–1982 West Germany 7 (0)
1982–1984 West Germany Olympic 12 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Bernd Franke (born 12 February 1948) is a German former footballer who played as a goalkeeper.[1]

Club career

Also an outfield player in his youth, young Bernd Franke made his steps towards the professional game following his impressiveness in the ranks of Saar 05 Saarbrücken. Their manager, Otto Knefler, remembered the young goalkeeper during his spell at Fortuna Düsseldorf and took him to Düsseldorf then. It was in 1971 when Knefler had been employed by Bundesliga side Eintracht Braunschweig and signed Franke again, this time considering decent backup's for Horst Wolter, Braunschweig's regular goalkeeper. Instantly Franke ousted the former international goalkeeper, but could not stop his club from getting relegated in 1973. Poised to join 1. FC Kaiserslautern from relegated Braunschweig that summer, Franke rejected the chance of staying a Bundesliga player in the year before the 1974 FIFA World Cup. In 1974, he was back in the Bundesliga with Braunschweig, as reliable as usual, enjoying a third-place finish in 1977.

It was just days ahead of the 1978 FIFA World Cup when Franke finally started to fall prey to injuries, failing to report for first-team fixtures due to injuries in the remaining years of his career from time to time. A loyal servant for Eintracht Braunschweig, however, the respected keeper stayed on with the club for one more season outside the Bundesliga during 1980–81 and was, when free of injury, a regular for them until Braunschweig's latest relegation from the top tier of German football in 1985. That was the summer Bernd Franke retired in order to promote his career outside the game. In total he showed up in 345 Bundesliga matches for his sole professional club in between 1971 and 1985.[2]

International career

Raising eyebrows due to his games for Eintracht Braunschweig, Bernd Franke established himself as a backup choice for

caps, playing in friendly victories against Portugal and Norway.[3] Already out of contention for Die Nationalmannschaft, Franke was given the chance to represent West Germany as starting keeper in all of their four matches in the football competition at the 1984 Summer Olympics.[4]
Throughout his career Franke was considered by many to have been the equal of both Sepp Maier and Harald Schumacher but was never able to move that one step further up and make himself first choice for West Germany, had he not suffered unfortunate injuries at the worst possible moments he may have taken over from Sepp Maier towards the end of the 1970s.

References

  1. ^ "Bernd Franke" (in German). fussballdaten.de. Retrieved 12 February 2010.
  2. RSSSF.org
    . Retrieved 16 February 2024.
  3. RSSSF.org
    . Retrieved 16 February 2024.
  4. ^ "Bernd Franke Biography and Statistics". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 23 April 2009. Retrieved 28 October 2009.

External links

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